Darkest Journey (Krewe of Hunters #20)(19)

Charlie thought of Mrs. Mama’s, a local café tucked away on a side street, where they could order some of the best shrimp and grits she’d had anywhere. “I know just the place,” she said.

Twenty minutes later they were seated, and a waitress was hurrying over to them. Charlie was looking at her menu when she realized the waitress was standing behind her, waiting for her drink order.

“What will you have, honey? Beer? Iced tea?”

Charlie turned and started to speak, and then she gasped softly and said, “Nancy? Nancy Deauville?”

It was the same woman who, ten years ago, had directed the action on the night Charlie was tied to a tombstone.

Like everyone involved with that horror show, Nancy had apologized. She and Charlie had even managed to act cordial for the rest of the year; then Nancy had graduated, and Charlie hadn’t seen her since.

“Charlie, great to see you here,” Nancy said. She seemed a little anxious and a little shy.

As if she meant what she was saying.

Charlie nodded. “Good to see you, too.” She meant it herself. Time had gone by; they were no longer teenagers.

Nancy nodded. “I hear you’re a movie star now.”

“Hardly. Just a working actress. How about you? How is everything?”

Nancy smiled, but Charlie thought it looked a little forced. “I married Todd Camp. The quarterback. We have two kids.”

“Congratulations.”

“Twins.”

“Great.”

“Sometimes,” Nancy said, then shrugged. “Sometimes when Todd is working at the garage all day, I bring the kids here with me, and sometimes they even behave. But I love them. Anyway, I’m so happy for you. You always wanted to act.”

“Well, thanks. I’m not exactly a fixture on the red carpet, though, you know?”

“You’re doing what you want to do, and that’s what counts.”

“Thanks. Hey, how’s Sherry doing? You two were so close. Is she still around, too?”

“Sherry got married and moved to New Jersey.”

“That’s nice.”

“New Jersey? After here? I don’t know. But she has a family, became an LPN.”

“So. Twins,” Charlie said into the awkward silence that followed Nancy’s updates. “No kids for me yet, but one day, I hope.”

“I’m sure it will happen for you. As for me, I just hope for a vacation one of these days. Anyway, what can I get you?”

“Iced tea and gumbo, please.”

“You got it,” Nancy said, and moved on.

She and Jimmy chatted for a minute, and then Jimmy looked down the table at Charlie and mouthed, “Didn’t know she was working here.”

Charlie shrugged. It had been ten years since that awful night, and it was a relief to discover she didn’t really care what had happened to Nancy and the rest of them.

Once Nancy left, they chatted companionably as they waited for their food; they were almost evenly split between gumbo and shrimp and grits, breaking along pretty much the same lines for iced tea vs. frosty beers. For a few minutes the talk revolved around how to film the upcoming confrontation between Charlie and an oil baron. Brad wanted a live location, but Luke was worried about getting the clean sound that he believed the scene warranted. And then, because it couldn’t be ignored forever, the subject of the dead man, Farrell Hickory, finally came up. They were all a little spooked because he was the second reenactor to be killed.

“And we all knew them both,” Jimmy said.

Charlie turned to look at him. “We did?” she asked.

“Most of us did, at any rate,” Barry said, nodding solemnly.

“Can’t say I knew either man well,” Mike Thornton said, pushing back a lock of dark hair. He was a lot like his brother, in both looks and mannerisms. He and Brad had been making movies together since they’d been kids.

“And,” Jimmy said to Charlie, “you didn’t know either one of them, unless it’s from when you were a kid, because you weren’t there for the special reenactment they did on the Journey a week ago—like so many of us were.” He was wearing a brave face, but she could see he was deeply upset by the murders.

He had never really forgiven himself for being involved the night a serial killer had almost killed her.

“Right, I was doing that webisode series. Banshees on the Bayou.”

Brad smiled. “I hope this film is as successful as Banshees on the Bayou.”

“A bunch of us were involved because there was a corporate sponsor, so we were paid pretty decently,” Jennie said, then went quiet for a long moment. “That’s when we met the men who’ve been killed.”

“Who—who else was working that day?” Charlie asked, more worried than she wanted to let on.

“Well, your dad, for one,” Luke pointed out.

“Yeah, my dad. I know. Who else?” she asked.

“Let’s see,” Brad said, looking around. “Me and Mike, Barry and Luke... Jennie did makeup.”

“Todd and I were there, too.”

Charlie spun around to see that Nancy Camp—née Deauville—was standing right behind her. “We earn extra money any time we can. We didn’t hang around, just did the bit they were paying us for, then left. You have to try to make more money than day-care costs or it’s not worth it to work. Tons of locals were there, not just us.”